The NewsDemon Blog

UK ISP Virgin Media has been trialling a new traffic management system that throttles upstream speeds on P2P networks and USENET newsgroups, upsetting a number of users in the process.

The ISP has long restricted download P2P traffic during peak hours to ensure a more consistent service for all customers, but the change to its terms marks a harder line approach and has already angered some customers – particularly USENET newsgroup subscribers.

Virgin said in a post that the new traffic management policy would be trialled for a period of one week starting March 2nd between 17:00 PM and 00:00 AM (12:00 and 00:00 at weekends).

“Between these times, P2P and newsgroup upstream traffic will be managed in a similar way to our current downstream traffic management. If the trial is successful we’ll launch the new policy immediately,” the company explained.

Virgin Media also invited users to give their feedback about the trials and let the company know if their online USENET experience was being affected.

It was clear that after a while newsgroup subscribers in particular were not at all happy about the trials and expressed their displeasure on the company’s user forums.

The clamp down will apply on top of the existing traffic shaping Virgin Media has in place and will affect all packages, including the previously unmanaged 100mb deal.